schoolingfish: (Scared seamonster)
Luca Paguro ([personal profile] schoolingfish) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2022-03-14 12:03 am

Welcome to the Jungle

Who: Luca and you! (Also one closed prompt for Reaper)
What: Various Jumanji prompts, plus non-event prompts with Luca swimming either in the ocean or, on the full moon night, in the Salt Lake and one closed prompt of him stealing from Reaper
When: Throughout the month
Where: In the jungle, in the ocean, in the Salt Lake, in Reaper's room

Content Warnings: A child drinking blood in the Reaper prompt, discussion of corruption in all prompts, a child being hunted in the Van Pelt prompt



Event Prompts

Rushing Rivers - OTA
He rolls the dice. His piece moves. And then...

'Every month at the quarter moon there'll be a monsoon in your lagoon.'

"Well, at least that sounds like something I..." And then he sees the size of the water rushing towards him. "Oh, carp."

Instantly he's swept away. Of course, of all the people who could be caught in something like this, Luca's better off than most. Sure, he's an ocean creature, not a river creature, but his species are nothing if not adaptable. They can change to survive on land, they can change to survive in the deep ocean, and like bull sharks and mollies and other highly adaptable fish, he's not going to die just because he's in fresh water, even though he wouldn't prefer it.

He might, however, die if he gets beaten to death against the rocks. He fears this might happen when the rush of water first cascades into him, smashing his body into what was now a river bed several times. His body instantly changes into his sea monster form, and while that doesn't save him from the initial battering he receives from the coursing river, his tail does give him an advantage in trying to gain some control. After getting bruised, scraped and battered against rocks and roots below him, Luca manages to get his tail moving and manages to work his way up, moving higher in the water as he goes, when he spots someone else trapped in the same situation. Someone who likely doesn't have gills.

Having managed to gain some control of his movement in the water, Luca manages to swim to the other person, grabbing them tightly and hoping that having someone grapple them when they're already struggling in the water won't make them panic and push him off. After all, he needs to get them to the surface.

Trophy Hunter - OTA
It's not the first time he's been hunted. It's not even the first time in the Trench he's been hunted. Not after that month where Darkbloods had the urge to hunt Vilebloods. Then of course, there was back home with Ercole hunting him. Home where there had been a 200,000 lira reward for dead sea monsters. He's terrified, but at the same time he knows how to do this, and he was determined to survive.

Luca doesn't make a sound, but simply scurries away from where he last saw Van Pelt, ears pricked for any sign that he's near. Spotting a mess of vines and ferns, he immediately gets down, covering himself in plant life to avoid being spotted. Not a moment too soon, either, because shortly after that he hears footsteps. When the other person approaches, though, he realizes that this isn't Van Pelt. If they happen to catch a glimpse of Luca, his finger will slowly rise to his lips, trying to shush them before they give their location away.

All Other Jumanji Prompts – OTA
When he sees the other person roll the dice, he watches, eyes wide, body tense in anticipation of some new horror he'll have to face. Luca's already been through so much with this, but he knows the only way to conquer it is to keep going, and that the sooner they face everything they have to face in this game, the sooner it can be over.

As he watches the piece move itself to it's new spot, Luca finally asks, "So...what's it say?"

He doesn't know if he'll understand it. He doesn't know if he'll have enough time after hearing what it says to do anything before the game does whatever it's going to do. Still, he wants any edge he can get in trying to prepare. He knows that even a split second of an advantage in this game can be the difference between life and death.

Non-Event Prompts

The Ocean – OTA
After everything that happened in the game, Luca can feel corruption creeping into his mind. He hasn't begun to physically change yet, but with the way he's flowed in and out of corruption lately, he's become familiar with it's shadow creeping in. The increased hunger for blood, the impulsivity, the feelings of shame and disgust with himself. The fear and paranoia. He's managing to keep it at bay, though.

He knows, of course, that he should go to his housemates to talk about it like Varian said, but it's harder once he begins to feel it's pull. Ultimately, he decides he'll try and relax. Try and get his mind off of things. Maybe try to remember various corruption remedies he might have heard or read about during his time here. And all this starts with going to the ocean.

Though he is curious about the land and loves it, at the end of the day, he is a creature of the sea and being near the ocean gives him a sense of familiarity and comfort. Besides, it's finally getting warmer. Sure, it's not warm enough yet that most people would consider it reasonable weather for a swim, but it's warm enough that the water shouldn't feel colder than a typical Ligurian winter, and seeing as he's used to being in the water year round, that means that the ocean should be just fine for him.

He's had some custom swimming attire made for just this sort of situation, since he'd been advised of the issues with regularly swimming in his clothes, and he strips down to a Victorian style swim suit and dives right in. Of course, he's had overlapping seams put in so he'd have a hidden opening for his tail, only visible when it grew in to fill the gap, so once he hits the water and changes to his sea monster form he's able to do so without damaging his clothing.

Once in the water, he begins to swim away from the shore, looking around at various objects and debris underwater, searching for anything he might be able to slip into a pocket to use for trade later, or perhaps a sea cucumber to snack on. He doesn't go far from the shore. He doesn't want to risk going too far from other people if he runs into trouble, after all. Still, he's careful to avoid fishing boats or crowded areas, and manages to avoid being spotted until he heads back to the dock to deposit his various rocks and other pretty things in one of the pockets of his discarded clothing before searching for more. That's when he spots someone looking at him.

"Oh. Um. Hi." He waits for a response, unsure of how they're going to react.

Baby shark, doo-doo, doo-doo – Closed to Reaper
He's managed to keep the corruption at bay until now, but he decides he really should go back to the house to talk about the problems he's experiencing. He gets derailed on that mission, though, when he passes Reaper's room. He doesn't know what it is at first, only that he smells something...tantalizing. He pauses by Reaper's door, taking in a deep breath, inhaling the scent. It's amazing.

At first he reasons that Reaper must have cooked something and taken it back to his room. After all, he's an amazing cook, and most of his food elicits a very similar reaction from Luca. But no, he realizes, it doesn't smell like Reaper's cooking usually does at all. It smells like blood.

Instantly concerned that Reaper might be hurt in there, Luca suddenly opens the door, "Reaper, are you--"

Then he realizes. No one is in there.

He knows it's foolish to enter Reaper's room. And yet, the smell draws him in. He can't resist it. He finds himself taking step after step further into the room. It makes sense, he assures himself, there's blood in Reaper's room and he needs to know what's going on. But that's not true and he knows it. He doesn't need to know Reaper's secret at all. He probably doesn't even want to know why there's blood in Reaper's room. He realizes as he pulls vials of blood from between the mattresses and begins to down the first one that he's only doing this because he's hungry.

Once the taste of blood fills his mouth, he doesn't even care that that's the reason. He's so lost drinking vial after vial that he doesn't even notice when Reaper returns to his room.

Salt Lake on a Full Moon Night – OTA
After the incident and....everything with Reaper, Luca realizes, as he stares at the full moon wondering what kind of monster he's become, that he needs to get this under control. Thankfully, he remembers the Salt Lake, and how he's heard it can heal corruption. It's exactly what he needs, and the idea of swimming again in the warm, pink, salty water sounds nice even just for the sake of being able to swim in it.

Soon anyone visiting the Salt Lake will find one more saltwater creature splashing around in it's waters as Luca strips down to his swimsuit and dives right in. He can already feel the weight and stress of his corruption lift as his sanity is slowly restored. Before long, from the sheer relief of it all, he finds himself laughing and leaping out of the water, chasing fish around and overall enjoying every moment of his saltwater bath.
imaglyphwitch: (I am shocked)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-03-31 11:27 am (UTC)(link)
You have to wonder how much of what we do is instinct and how much is just memory we retain in that moment.

[Either way, it was honestly a little scary].

Oh yeah. The farm.

[Not good memories there].

Sometimes I feel like people should lock up Reaper and Darth Maul whenever they get a hair up their butt to start doing crazy stuff. It never helps them on the network.
imaglyphwitch: (view askew)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-01 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
They really, really do. I'm still trying to figure out what happened between the two of them. They're on a break, apparently.

[Luz didn't want to be nosy, and yet? She really, really did].

And Darth Maul tends to lean into the bad part most of the time. You think he'd be sick of that profiling by now.
imaglyphwitch: (can't quite place it)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-02 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
So do I. I think even Darth Maul would understand that.

[And of course, the two of them would have no idea what the deal was with Reaper and Maul. Probably for the better].

He was raised to BE like that, and he had someone gaslighting him for years. For Darth Maul, being imposing and scary is what was always his role.
imaglyphwitch: (somethings fishy)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-04 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
I found out about it by mistake. You wouldn't believe how easy it is for that to happen around h-actually, you would. That's totally what happened when I saw YOUR memory with that jerky guy. So you know it happen more than it should have.

[With Maul, and Luz knew better than to talk about it, it was something that Maul's so-called mentor made happen: he saw Maul as a weapon and made sure he used him sufficiently. Luz couldn't even imagine all the pain and hurt Darth Maul had gone through to make him as fragmented and as divisive as he was now. Seeing hints of it was enough for Luz to truly despise Pulpitine].
imaglyphwitch: (is this real life)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-05 11:03 am (UTC)(link)
It needs to stop happening so much. Otherwise, it'll be boring.

[Luz knew that saying something like that was a curse, but she was honestly getting a little sick of it at this point].

Well, that depends. For one thing, I think the reason I wasn't brutalized by Darth Maul when he found out was because he already knows me. He was not happy about me seeing it at all. He's very protective about what people know about him.
imaglyphwitch: (small not small fears)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-09 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
It wouldn't for most people. Darth Maul is...special in that case, given what he used to do. He's very protective about what he wants people to know.

[Better Luz DIDN'T tell him about the time Darth Maul almost forced choked her to death under Deerington influence].

((OOC: He might be able to gleam it anyway though, because of their Bond, but in little glimpses)).
imaglyphwitch: (view askew)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-09 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
Well. He did try to choke me to death, and he's able to do it without touching me. The force, I think. Crazy, huh?

But he wasn't in his right mind. That time he almost burned Fern alive and did kill Varian.

And my sister at the time.
imaglyphwitch: (O MAN I MESSED UP)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-11 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
It was. Honestly, I am really lucky that I haven't been killed at all yet. I don't know how I keep managing to not die.

[She'd been lucky and very, VERY fast, but she knew it might happen eventually. It happened to just about everyone, after all. That day though, had been pretty hard, and she knew Eda had been pretty rocked by what happened to Varian and Fern].

He wasn't, and yes, Varian was sure about that. But um, don't bring up Maul lately. He still can do plenty of dumb things without killing people, and his latest stunt has got both Varian and Fern pretty ticked at him...Reaper too, I think.

It was pretty bad. Never underestimate what this place will throw at you.
imaglyphwitch: (aw why??)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-14 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I am! Phew, and good too. In Deerington once you died the second time you start losing memories.

[Yeah, that's something Luz was pretty sure she didn't want to think about].

Good plan. He has some things he needs work out. I'm sure WE can see him, away from the house.

[If they wanted to see him they should, but Luz would be sure to do it outside of the house].
imaglyphwitch: (EEEE)

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-16 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
Heh. You don't have to tell me twice! It'll be my first time in pink water anyway!

[They could always worry about Darth Maul later. If they felt like it].
imaglyphwitch: (horray)

[End here]?

[personal profile] imaglyphwitch 2022-04-16 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll be right there!

[She charged right in and didn't even blink despite how cold it was. After all, she hadn't had fun in the water like this for some time]!